Floral Buzz
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Valentine’s Day, A tradition of Love and Lust
The tradition of Valentine’s Day had it’s beginning during the Roman festival of Lupercalia. This celebration honoured the god Lupercalus, who insured fertitlity of all living things. As the Roman empire grew and also with the conquest of France, the festival of Lupercalia included a “love lottery” of paper hearts. Single women of the village constructed paper hearts, wrote their names upon them and deposited them into a lottery. Willing men drew one heart, the name upon this heart would be their awarded gift. Many men proudly displayed this heart on their sleeves, and so the modern phrase “they wear their heart on their sleeves” referring to emotions and feelings that are not well hidden.
During Romans times men were not encouraged to marry during periods of war. Claudius II felt that men would then rather stay home with their families than implement his desires and requests for conquest. So marriage was banned. A Roman priest, Valentine, married lover’s secretly against the emperor’s wishes. Although Valentine was later executed for this, he became the patron saint of lovers, St Valentine’s.
Many of our traditions surrounding Valentine’s Day were created during the Victorian period. Although the rudimentary beginnings were in medieval times, the Victorians enhanced many of the traditions. Flowers have always been associated with wooing another’s heart, the Victorian’s knew it better than anyone. Flowers delivered messages of true emotion and feeling during this era of compromised and uptight strict moral values and principles. Today flowers still send “messages of magnificence”, whatever that message may be. As a florist I assist human communication in this positive and expressive way and revel enthusiastically in this task.
Why not check out our Special Arrangements for Valentines Day
Karon Fuson
The Floral Revelry Florist